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India’s Portfolio Managers Begin The Year With Midcap Blues

Portfolio managers started 2019 with losses as the midcap rout that began last year showed no signs of abating.

India’s top 50 portfolio managers with Rs 1,01,270 crore worth of investments—close to 90 percent of assets managed by such firms—saw the value of their holdings decline 4 percent month-on-month on an average in January, according to data compiled by BloombergQuint from disclosures made to the market regulator.

The top 50 firms that manage money for the wealthy failed to return average gains in January. About 1.3 lakh investors whose money they manage on an average lost 3.1 percent during the month.

That compares with a 0.52 percent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex and a 0.29 percent decline in NSE Nifty 50 Index. But India’s benchmark indices have been supported by a handful of heavyweight stocks for more than a year, masking the stress in the broader indices. The Nifty Midcap 100 declined 5.43 percent in January and Nifty 500 fell 1.81 percent.

The negative returns by portfolio management firms in January follow an average decline of 6.7 percent for their investors in 2018. And of the top 50 portfolio managers, only four returned gains in January.

All the top 15 portfolio managers lost money in January.

The Complete List

The midcap rout led to some portfolio managers losing up to 10 percent in January. Basant Maheshwari Wealth Advisers, Care Portfolio, Aequitas Investment and Equity Intelligence were the worst performers.